Browse the index
Filter by category and discipline, then by continent, country and century of birth. Countries not yet represented can be drafted at the research desk.
Category
Era
8 figures
Neville Goddard
1905 – 1972Taught imagination as the sole creative power; 'assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled'.
Barbados·New Thought · Philosophy
Octavio Paz
1914 – 1998The Labyrinth of Solitude defined Mexican self-understanding.
Mexico·Literature · PhilosophyNobel
John Rawls
1921 – 2002A Theory of Justice: fairness derived from behind the veil of ignorance.
United States·Philosophy · Law
Paulo Freire
1921 – 1997Pedagogy of the Oppressed rewrote literacy teaching for the global south.
Brazil·Philosophy · Education
Martin Luther King Jr.
1929 – 1968Letter from Birmingham Jail and a movement that rewrote American law.
United States·Peace · Philosophy · LiteratureNobel
Mario Vargas Llosa
1936 – 2025Anatomies of power across the Andes and the Caribbean.
Peru·Literature · PhilosophyNobel
Martha Nussbaum
b. 1947Capabilities approach to justice, and a defence of emotion in public reason.
United States·Philosophy · Human Rights
David Frawley
b. 1950Vedic scholar whose texts linked Ayurveda, yoga and jyotish for Western students.
United States·Ayurveda · Philosophy